11 thoughts on “Infographic: Solar vs. Coal, a Tale of Two Trains”

How much energy was used in the production of the solar panels? Everything from mining the copper and melting the glass to the shipping packages and strapping. Please include also the energy required to make and ship the panel mounts. thank you

The energy to make and ship the panels is accounted for in the estimated 140,000 tons of carbon pollution mentioned near the bottom of the infographic. That number accounts for emissions for all life-cycle inputs into the production, installation, operation, and recycling of the panels.

You know Ben I’m a RE design engineer and I believe RE is very useful but it is not economical in all situations. You are throwing in lots of expenses on the coal side that don’t exist. I don’t see you throwing in the cost of building a module factory on the solar side. Let’s face it; fossil fuel is still more economical than solar in many situations but not all. Trying to utilize it where it doesn’t make financial sense only serves to give it a bad rap. I have seen folks with self serving financial interests misapply solar and leave angry end users behind which has helped to degrade the industry. Articles like this are misleading and inaccurate. The truth is better as honesty is always the best policy.

How is the data meaningless? This kind of calculation (and the calcs for costs I did in an earlier comment) are exactly why solar power and other renewables are by far the largest part of new generation. In 2016, new solar generation accounted for more total capacity than the net of new coal generation and coal plant retirements. (source: https://www.iea.org/renewables/).

Well at $0.55 per watt on the solar panels (not counting the other equipment and installation) you have (276,000 x 320) x 0.55= $48.6 million dollars. With the cost of the coal being around $90 per ton you’ve got 14,400 x $80 or $1.3 million. So you get 37 years of coal for the price of just the modules. Add the BOS and it’s even more cost for the modules

Coal costs are around $42.58/ton right now (source: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=coal_prices), and you’d need about 52,000 tons per year (3.6 trains’-worth). That’s about $2.2 million this year. And coal costs rise about 4% every year (same source as above), which means the cost for the 30 years of coal in this example is actually around $110 million.

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